UoM Innovation Week - The FarmBot of the Faculty of Agriculture

UoM Innovation Week 2021

The second edition of the University of Mauritius’s (UoM) Innovation Week 2021, was Launched on 18 Oct 2021. It’s being held from 18 to 22 October 2021. The  Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, the Vice-Chancellor of the UoM, Professor Dhanjay Jhurry, as well as other eminent personalities were also present.  On this occasion, the Faculty of Agriculture demonstrated how the farm bot functions. 

Mr Shane Hardowar gave a brief to the Prime Minister

In this context, Mr Jugnauth recalled that the launching of the UoM Agritech Park in February 2020 is one commendable initiative that aims to modernise agricultural practices and create new opportunities for strategic public private partnerships. Furthermore, the Prime Minister emphasised that promoting digital entrepreneurship is an essential driver within the innovation system and, in this context, Government is shaping the digital future, developing the knowledge industry and, promoting skills and talent. effectively

The FarmBot

The Model of the AgriTech Park

However, attaining the above goals calls for a multi-stakeholder partnership that includes representatives of academia, industry and the community, he underlined. 

As for the Vice-Chancellor, he underlined that innovation has been the key focus of the new UoM vision and recalled that in 2020, the first UoM Innovation Week was organised and the theme was on the tripartite relationship with stakeholders and on the ecosystem required for innovation to thrive. One of the main recommendations, Professor Jhurry pointed out, was to set up a National Innovation System advocating a three-pronged approach to foster innovation, notably, Macro, Meso and; Micro.

For this second edition, he indicated that the theme ‘Sustainable Innovation in the Making’ was chosen so as to lay emphasis on the innovation capacity of the UoM working closely with stakeholders and how the UoM is contributing